Page 17 of Four Times Saved

The phone shook in my hand. "You weren't the only ones in the hospital tonight," I gulped as I pressed play.

A choked up, guttural groan escaped me. Her head was wrapped up in white bandage. She was dressed in a pale blue hospital gown, asleep, with a machine beeping next to her.

A disguised voice broke through the first few seconds of silence like the scene of a horror movie.

'She's alive. For now. And if you want to keep her that way, there's a price you will have to pay. Fifty million buckaroonies. Shouldn't be a problem though, you're rolling in dough. Don't take too long, I'm already being generous with my time. In seventy-two hours, I'll contact you again.'

That fucking piece of shit. Where the fuck was that contact number? My eyes floated to the top of the message. Since when could you send a fucking message from an unknown number?

"I'm going to kill him!" I growled.

"I'm right behind you," Eric grunted, hopping back outside the door.

"And where the hell are you going to find him?" Matt rolled his eyes at Eric. "There must be a way to call him back."

"Already tried that," I scowled at him.

He ignored me. "Star, sixty-nine," he said out loud as he punched in the number.

Okay, I didn't try that. I held my breath.

"Damn it!" He growled and tried again until he threw his phone across the room. "I have several million in a safe back at my place." He pounded his fist against his palm while pacing.

"Me too," Ethan interrupted. "I can probably get the bank to agree to let me withdraw a few more in a short amount of time. Hell, I can get on my jet now and have the money by tomorrow. There has to be a way to get through to them!" He yelled, still trying and failing to call them back. "There isn't even a fucking voicemail! Do they want the damn money or not?!"

Eric and I looked at them spiraling, and we all wore matching expressions. Sweat beaded on my forehead and my breath grew shorter. Seventy-two hours was too damn long. How did we know they wouldn't kill her as soon as they got the money? What was to say they hadn't already killed her and sent us an old video?

Chapter 9

Lily

My head was spinning. Antiseptic assaulted my nostrils. As I opened my eyes, I was attacked by a white, bright light. I blinked them shut again from the throbbing. But I was alive. I could tell by the beeping sound of a machine next to me. I doubted there were hospital machines in heaven or hell.

Moving my legs and arms let me know that I wasn't trapped. Despite the slight disorientation, my strength was in tip-top shape. This was the moment I would make my escape. Throwing the thin, paper-like sheet off me, I opened my eyes again to find the eyes of danger staring back at me.

I might not have been locked away in a dark room, but I was still trapped. Angry tears gathered behind my eyes as my breath was knocked out of me by the warning in his eyes. Speak about what happened and someone would get hurt.

The unfamiliar kidnapper flipped a knife shut in front of me and tucked it in his pocket before getting up and walking to the door.

"She's awake!" He yelled at the door, impatience making his tone a sort of growl.

Moments later, a nurse entered the room. Her smile was so big and bright, it burned through me, tempting me to spill all my secrets, but the kidnapper's heavy presence in the room laid on my lungs like a boulder.

A tiny whisper was all I managed. "Where am I?"

"Oh, hun. You're at..." She named a hospital in Virginia Beach and the boulder on my chest pierced a lung. If I was no longer in North Carolina, no one would be able to find me. I pleaded to her with my eyes, hoping to tell her everything without saying a word, as if I could manufacture a telepathic connection on the spot.

"You must be in a lot of shock. It's a good thing this good Samaritan found you. You had a pretty bad wound. Do you remember what happened?" She asked, checking my temperature.

I gulped, shifting my eyes from the furthest thing from a good Samaritan that one could be, and back to her. "No," I said while I begged her inside my screaming mind.

For a moment, I thought she might understand, but she simply moved on to readjusting my drips.

"Do you remember your name?" she asked.

I blinked my eyes shut as a tear escaped. Well, at least the tear got to escape. My tongue was being held captive along with the rest of my body and I was losing hope. I couldn't leave here with him again, I just couldn't. I'd rather die than go anywhere with him.

"I thought only family was allowed inside the room," I mumbled.

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